NETA NATTER | REVANTH PLANS HIS OWN OLYMPICS

The BJP government at the Centre may have pushed across one more Union Budget but the party leaders have been at pains, and at a loss, to explain how Telangana received a very raw deal this year. One such effort to say the state got its dues made by Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Pralhad Joshi recently in Hyderabad — after he was deputed to mount a strong defence of the Centre's stand that it was not against any state, even if it was ruled by the Opposition parties — appeared to have had Joshi lost at sea. Faced with a barrage of questions on the subject, Joshi resorted to a quick readout from a copy of the Union Budget, and refrained from any specifics about Telangana, clearly indicating that this was a subject the BJP would rather not talk about at all.

SIRPUR CONFUSED WHICH WAY TO GO – TS OR MH?

There was a time when the BRS would rake up the issue of merging some villages in Maharashtra, on the Telangana border, with Telangana. But now, this mantle apparently has been taken over by the BJP whose leaders have suddenly become vocal on the subject. But with a difference. BJP leaders want parts of Sirpur (T) constituency merged with Maharashtra. The BRS earlier used to claim that the good folk from Maharashtra were impressed with the development in Telangana and wanted to become part of this state. And now, the BJP leaders are talking about how parts of Sirpur constituency are so backward that people there want to join Maharashtra. This is all utterly confusing, say people from Sirpur.

JAGAN FIGHTS FOR LoP

Once a CM….. But when tables are turned after elections, the bite of reality can go deep, as appears to be the case with former AP chief minister and YSRC supremo Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is trying every trick in the book to try and get his party – with just 11 MLAs in a House of 175– the status of principal opposition party. So his efforts to seek this status in the form of a letter to Assembly Speaker Ch. AyyannaPatrudu citing past instances of a party with very few seats getting this status. He even moved the High Court seeking a direction to the Speaker to accord Leader of Opposition status to him. Jagan’s contention is that unless his party is given the status of principal opposition and himself the status of LoP, they cannot raise the voice of the people in the Assembly and help resolve their problems, knowing fully well that his party has 30 MLCs in the 58-member Legislative Council which could have a significant say when it comes to passage of Bills.

VIZAG’S MLC RACE BEGINS

Political positions are hard to get, especially when just one is on the table. This is the case with the forthcoming MLC election within the combined Visakhapatnam district, with 822 local body members exercising their voting rights. For the one MLC post more than 20 aspirants are in the fray from the major political parties. The vacancy arose after Vamsikrishna Srinivas Yadav’s resignation from the YSRC last November and his subsequent affiliation with the Jana Sena rendered him ineligible for the MLC post due to party defection laws. As of now, some 20 leaders have thrown their hat into the ring from Visakhapatnam, Anakapalli, and Alluri Sitarama Raju districts, and it is anybody’s guess who might make the final cut.

AQUA FARMERS IN AP PERFORM MODI ABHISHEKAM